Does ExifTool actually reliably work in Win 10?

[techedge]

ExifTool doesn't do anything (see below) and additionally ExifToolGUI tells me "List index out of bounds (0)" for Program>About...

I'm sure it works for some people, but this is ridiculous! See my Dos commands below (run as Admin)

c:\Apps\GPS-stuff>dir
Volume in drive C is C-pg
Volume Serial Number is 8AC4-CBDC

Directory of c:\Apps\GPS-stuff

27-Sep-17  10:52 PM    <DIR>          .
27-Sep-17  10:52 PM    <DIR>          ..
26-Sep-17  09:28 PM         8,245,881 exiftool(-k).exe
26-Sep-17  09:28 PM         8,245,881 exiftool.exe
27-Sep-17  09:45 PM         2,937,344 ExifToolGUI.exe
27-Sep-17  10:11 PM             1,974 ExifToolGUIv5.ini
27-Sep-17  09:45 PM             2,400 ExifToolGUI_readme.txt
23-Sep-17  12:52 PM         5,828,342 i.jpg
23-Sep-17  12:52 PM         5,828,342 IMG_20170923_125232.jpg
27-Sep-17  09:45 PM    <DIR>          jhead_jpegtran
27-Sep-17  09:45 PM    <DIR>          workspace
27-Sep-17  09:46 PM    <DIR>          zip-source
               7 File(s)     31,090,164 bytes
               5 Dir(s)  663,365,427,200 bytes free

c:\Apps\GPS-stuff>exiftool i.jpg

c:\Apps\GPS-stuff>ver

Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.15063]

c:\Apps\GPS-stuff>exiftoolgui

[Phil Harvey]

Windows defender interferes with ExifTool.  See this sticky thread in the bug reports section.

- Phil

[techedge]

I now have "App & Browser control" set to "Check apps and files is off". I don't have any other anti-virus stuff running and Windows tells me "My device is being protected" and had a "Last health scan" yesterday.

And I also tried setting the Properties>Compatibility>Windows-7 and also checked ExifTool to be run "as an administrator"

... sorry - no difference, ExifTool comes right back with a big fat nothing!

[CloudedGenie]

techedge,

I am running Windows 10 (version Version 10.0.16291.0) with Windows Defender enabled, with all its default settings and no exclusion rules specifically for exiftool. I have no other anti-virus software or antispyware checking (if I want to check some dodgy site, I access it from my iPad)

I did place the C:\Utils folder where I installed exiftool on my PATH, but that's just because I got tired of the error when I forgot to include it on the command line.

I am a user with administrative rights on the machine, but I do not run the command prompt elevated.

- Christelle

[Phil Harvey]

Another thing to try is to delete the temporary files and re-run ExifTool.  They should be located in C:\Users\USER\AppData\Local\Temp\par-USER or wherever your TEMP environment specifies.

Occasionally people have had problems with ExifTool files getting corrupted when the package installs itself into the temporary directory.

- Phil

[techedge]

At the DOS prompt I typed "set" to discover the temporary directory - in my case I got
...
SystemRoot=C:\WINDOWS
TEMP=C:\Users\peter\AppData\Local\Temp
...

with file explorer I found a directory at "C:\Users\peter\AppData\Local\Temp" with prefix "par-", and a creation date indicating it was probably the directory in question - I simply deleted this directory.

My simple command "c:\Apps\GPS-stuff>exiftool i.jpg" produced, after a several second delay, a result indicating that ExifTool now seems to work as it should. I then executed the next most basic command "c:\Apps\GPS-stuff>exiftool *.jpg" which provided sensible output almost immediately.

My understanding is that the underlying Perl environment that ExifTool uses must first be unpacked/created (and also cached for subsequent faster invocation) before it can do any useful work. Consequently, should there be any initial-invocation problem, subsequent invocations will share this same issue, despite those conditions that caused the problem no longer existing.

I used ExifTool a couple of years ago and was surprised to find that now it didn't work for me on this (other) machine. I can't help thinking that the underlying Perl-environment code probably knew that there was a problem the first time it ran but perhaps ExifTool ignored a return value from Perl that would have enabled me to be alerted to this issue (or perhaps it did alert me the first time, and I ignored/didn't-see it?).

I have no doubt that countless users find ExifTool works well for them. But I also wonder how many problems are caused by the underlying Perl itself? As a sometimes programmer myself, I have been caught over the years by various compiler upgrades that "fix" libraries in such a way that my existing code no longer works, forcing me to rewrite large sections of code. My problem with Perl is its write-only nature (like Forth and some other languages that successfully go out on a limb to be different).

Anyway, thanks Phil for the tip that has solved this issue with your fine software.

Regards, Peter